This June 25 release date is something else and it might take a day or two to get the new music weekly ready, because there’s so much to love and cherish. One of the key songs on it will be CARLENE’s remarkable new single Time Passes. She is a Canadian folk singer-songwriter and this is the first single from her forthcoming album Looking Out My Window that she has been working on for ten years. It’s a magical folk song and I can’t wait to hear the full album sometime this fall.
More recent folk treasures. This time from Portland’s Jeremy Ferrara who made one of my favorite albums of 2020. He already has a new one lined up and and Everything I Hold will be released by American Standard Time Records on the 9th of July. There’s a couple of great singles out there already. I’m especially fond of this beautiful and deeply moving song called Fictional.
Another one of these small round up of songs / albums / videos I’ve loved during the recent months. Kicking off with the brand new Charlie Marie album Ramble On that came out on the 7th of May. I loved the self-titled EP few years back and have been eager to hear more from this country songwriter. The new album doesn’t disappoint and it’s one of my favorite country records of the year. Here’s a couple of personal favorites favorites from the album. There’s more music videos on youtube and you can of course hear/listen the whole thing on her Bandcamp.
Katie Jo from California (via Wichita) is a new favorite and I didn’t know her until the advance singles of her 2021 album Pawn Shop Queen started to hit the core of my heart. It came out on the 9th of April and have since been on heavy rotation. My own favorite is I Don’t Know Where Your Heart’s Been and highly recommend checking out the song and the gorgeous music video Drey Jordan Singer made for it. And if you like what you hear, check out her Bandcamp to listen and buy the whole beautiful album.
Speaking of perfect country records, perhaps it’s time for a small revisit to Melissa Carper’s old-fashioned future classic Daddy’s Country Gold. I’ve mentioned it a few times here and there, but another reminder is in order because it’s one of the albums I’ve loved the most during the first half of 2021. Here’s one of my many favorites along with a video from the always great Western AF.
Let’s wrap this little blog entry with some cover magic from Croy and The Boys. If you have ever wanted to hear how anarcho punk and country music work together, check out this marvellous Crass cover of Do They Owe Us A Living?. And well if you want to hear more of their punk covers, listen to / buy the full EP of punk covers on their Bandcamp page.
I’ve been meaning to share the video of the song Cassie Knows, or How a shy person says I love you by Icarus Phoenix for a long time, but my blogging activity has been next to none. Tonight I saw the new video for the Iron Man and his Demons, for Striker and after shedding the tears, I knew I had to finally break out from the blogging slump and share songs and videos from this beautiful record.
Icarus Phoenix is a new project my long time blog favorite Drew Danburry. He originally released the Icarus Phoenix album last year on cassette, but in april 2021 he also made it available digitally. He is also making these beautiful hand-drawn time lapse music videos. It must take a long time to make them, but they are worth the effort. Here’s the two I mentioned above, but you’ll find more from his youtube. And if you like them, buy the cassette or download from Telos Tapes Bandcamp.
Next up is my favorite Tasmanian pop group Quivers. Actually I think they are located in Melbourne these days, but what actually matters is that they are a great band. I fell in love madly when I heard the song Pigeons few years back. In between now and then they released their debut record and covered the entire Out Of Time album by R.E.M. Both are highly recommended if you missed them. At this moment in time they are getting ready to release their new record Golden Doubt. They seem to be on an upward trajectory, because the new one will be co-released by such cool labels as Ba Da Bing!, Bobo Integral and Spunk. The two singles that are out and available are both absolutely wonderful.
Let’s wrap this one with a song or two from the forthcoming John Andrews & The Yawns album. Cookbook is out next week on Woodsist and all the singles have been pure gold. This River of Doubt video makes me smile every time. There’s live music, pond hockey and cats, so how could I not love it wholeheartedly.
